Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[lenticular]

36 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

Obviously, you can have more fun if you know what´s coming - that probably holds true for most FEs and even more so if you can do builds based on skills etc. Replayability comes from map design that isn´t just 30 enemies strewn about a vaguely laid out terrain and the ability to change things up. CQ does both pretty darn well.

 

On the other hand, at the very least I had fun going through the game the first time, because finding a working approach to the problem the map presented and then seeing it working out that way was a very neat feeling.

There's definitely always the tension between novelty and familiarity, and both have their benefits. I don't think it's at all obvious that you should be able to have more fun when you know what's coming. Sometimes that might be the case, certainly, but not obviously so. As you say, it's fun to be presented with a novel problem that you've never seen before, figure out a solution and have it work out, and that can't really be replicated in subsequent playthroughs. But the other side of the coin is that on subsequent playthroughs you have more knowledge of the game and the mechanics, so you can prepare better, make long-term plans, pull off more audacious strategies, etc.

It's a balance. The ideal scenario that most games would like to strive for is to offer an excellent experience on a first playthrough, but then also an excellent -- but different -- experience on replaying. But often the two desires are in tension with each other. The best first-time experience does not always make for the best replay experience and vice versa, so prioritising one to excess can often hurt the other.

What counts as the optimal balance varies from person to person based on preference. For myself, I tend to prioritise a good first-time experience more than I value replay value in most games that I play, including most Fire Emblems. For others, I know that isn't true. I guess my question could be, do you think that Conquest tips the balance further towards the replay value side of thing than other Fire Emblem games do, or is there no real difference?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I guess my question could be, do you think that Conquest tips the balance further towards the replay value side of thing than other Fire Emblem games do, or is there no real difference?

Eeeeeeeh, I´m not 100% sure how to answer this, so I´ll just go with no real difference. Again, I think a FE with well-designed maps, classes and mechanics will automatically have both a good first time so to say, as well as high replay value. Obviously there´s other factors, such as story or characters but I couldn´t care less about any of that. 

 

As far as I´m concerned CQ is just vastly more interesting than other FE´s. The maps, units and classes and the mechanics that support all of it are just vastly better than anything any other FE has.

I think it was 3 or so months ago, where someone on here did a hacked PMU of lunatic CQ and i gave them a Flora with Strengthtaker, Quixotic and Ignis - so a character who scales with the amount of enemies she kills. I´m currently in the process of getting the necessary skills to do a Replicate run of CQ on top of trying to get some builds together - so imagine that very same Flora but with Replicate. No other game really allows stuff like that. Sure, they all have their own unique things - I´m thinking Awakenings Armsthrift Nosferatu, or TH Dimitri Battallion builds but for me they are nowhere near what Fates offers. 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Imuabicus

[Alastor15243]

@lenticular

@Imuabicus

Given my well-established opinion that the a blind ironman is an amazing experience that any Fire Emblem worth its salt should he able to facilitate, I trust I don't need to say much on what I think about the first run of a game like Conquest. That said, hindsight does allow you to do tons if different things and mess around with the game more, so yeah, I'd say it's a good mix of both. I especially enjoy the tense moments that pop up because I forgot about enemy reinforcement locations though. And you can't get those if you play a game too often. It's only because I haven't played the game in years that this happened.

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Step 1) Heart Seal, Friendship Seal, Partner Seal parent into class.

Step 2) Learn Skill as you needed.

Step 3) Get Kid as needed, inherit skill you want.

Step 4) Bench as needed.

That way you can bench your least favourites AND get neat skills on kids without needing to reclass. And as mentioned multiple times throughout this part of Alastors Fates adventure, you may want lv 15 skills on your kids, skills who rarely come in before you have "unlimited" reclassing anyway so that you can beat some maps easier. Which is all the use you need out of these skills.

That ignores that level 15 skills are impractical to pass down unless your name is Felicia or Jakob, especially considering certain paralogues (e.g. Nina, Ophelia) have goodies that I'd get more out of if I unlocked and cleared them earlier than later (and this tradeoff is not even remotely even, as getting a level 15 skill on a child unit does NOT make up for the fact that I had to actively waste experience on someone I had no intention of using, to say nothing of the fact that I can't benefit from the items the paralogue gives for as long) This just sounds more like taking the path of most resistance (and actively shooting myself in the foot) for no meaningful gain.

4 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Because before his STR starts hurting him, he can quite competently capture enemies. He´s also a source of chip and one of the three natural bow users in CQ. The better the player, the better the Niles.

I don't know about you, but I have several serious issues with capture as far as Fates is concerned that leads me to dismiss it as not being worth it:

On 4/21/2021 at 11:45 AM, lenticular said:

Not if it looks like it did in Fates, and probably not at all. There are three main problems that I have with it.

1. Having it tied to specific characters and their personal skill. If you don't want to use those characters or if they're dead (or not recruited or otherwise unavailable) then that completely disables the mechanic. And it also makes those characters worse than they otherwise would be, since whenever you aren't capturing, they effectively don't have a personal at all.
2. Captured characters not being fully realised. By which I mean a full set of supports, their own personal, etc. Without all the trimmings, captured characters feel flat. With the exception of the few capturables with interesting skill combinations, you're generally just getting inferior versions of what you already have. Which sounds like it might be useful as a way to pick up replacement units in a struggling ironman, but see point 1. It can't even be reliably used for that since the only character who can capture might be dead.
3. Story concerns. It often just doesn't make any storyline sense. We capture someone from the opposing army, imprison them, and then they say "sure, I'll fight alongside you now" so we let them out and completely trust them to help us invade their home territory and kill their royal family? And don't ever stop to think that maybe they were just telling us what we wanted to hear so they could either betray us or just escape? Are we complete idiots?

This is not to say I'd want capture banished from the series entirely, but I want it to feel like the devs actually knew what they were doing, as opposed to throwing it in just because (and to be blunt, it seems glaringly obvious that capture was NOT implemented well in Fates).

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

On 5/1/2021 at 2:17 PM, Shadow Mir said:

That ignores that level 15 skills are impractical to pass down unless your name is Felicia or Jakob, especially considering certain paralogues (e.g. Nina, Ophelia) have goodies that I'd get more out of if I unlocked and cleared them earlier than later (and this tradeoff is not even remotely even, as getting a level 15 skill on a child unit does NOT make up for the fact that I had to actively waste experience on someone I had no intention of using, to say nothing of the fact that I can't benefit from the items the paralogue gives for as long) This just sounds more like taking the path of most resistance (and actively shooting myself in the foot) for no meaningful gain.

I don't know about you, but I have several serious issues with capture as far as Fates is concerned that leads me to dismiss it as not being worth it: [snip]

This is not to say I'd want capture banished from the series entirely, but I want it to feel like the devs actually knew what they were doing, as opposed to throwing it in just because (and to be blunt, it seems glaringly obvious that capture was NOT implemented well in Fates).

There´s more than lv. 15 skills. There´s more kids than Ophelia, Nina. Bench parent you don´t need = no waste of exp. Not that hard.

Which of lenticulars complaints leads you to dismiss the capture system?

[starburst]

On 5/1/2021 at 2:26 AM, lenticular said:

[On a mostly Player-Phase-based approach to Chapter 23]

Which I am interpreting basically as there being a way to play that level that is fun but that it's only realistically available to people who already know the game very well, otherwise you're left with the not-fun way of approaching the level.

In my case, more aggressive approaches come up more often because I enjoy playing Conquest with fewer units.
My parties do not "tank" very well, and backpacks are forbidden, therefore, cleaning areas on Player Phase is very often the safest bet. Focus on damage output and not on defence, favour Berserkers, Sorcerers and bow wielders. They wipe any given area. Eight out of ten units must either one-hit or one-round in Attack Stance, or they are useless. There are not enough movements to care about chip damage.

 

On 5/1/2021 at 2:26 AM, lenticular said:

I'm wondering if Conquest was specifically designed for replayability value and, if so, did that harm it from the perspective of how good a first time through is?

I cannot answer this question fairly because I actually enjoy replaying games. I always play a game first to "test" it, for some minutes or for several hours, and then I restart it and play a more "serious" run. This is how I learn.
You see, I started a campaign of Conquest some weeks ago. I had an idea about using the royals in alternate classes, given that I had not played with them in years. Well, life happened, I left it on hold around Chapter 15, and picked it up this weekend. Since I could not remember the pairs and classes that I wanted to use, I wiped the data and started it over. I have other ideas now and enjoy the replays. 😬

In the case of Fire Emblem, it helps immensely that I do not get mad when I die, not even when it happens against a two-percent-chance critical hit on the last encounter of the map. I laugh at it and come back later.

Even though I have played Conquest many, many times, I do not have notes about the offensive or defensive thresholds for a given section, nor have I memorised the numbers; I just play it and trust that my party will be able to wipe the area or survive the following phase. There is always some novelty and thrill to its puzzles, even if you know exactly what to do.
I find Blind Lunatic impossible, though, for it demands specific thresholds that one must take into account various chapters in advance.

[Shadow Mir]

12 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Which of lenticulars complaints leads you to dismiss the capture system?

All of them. Gameplay-wise, it doesn't really help me because mooks that are actually worth fielding over actual units are rare at best and virtually nonexistent at worst. Story wise, it doesn't make sense to unquestionably trust a captured enemy soldier to fight for your cause without any thought to the fact that they may have ulterior motives and/or may have just been telling you what you wanted to hear just so they can get a chance to betray you or even run away. And then you have most of the paralogue bosses. Considering most of them are criminals of some sort, how many of THEM would you trust to fight for your cause???

13 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

There´s more than lv. 15 skills. There´s more kids than Ophelia, Nina. Bench parent you don´t need = no waste of exp. Not that hard.

I only used Ophelia and Nina as examples because their paralogues have rewards besides them. Anyways... off the top of your head, what skills would you consider good for inheritance?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Gameplay-wise, it doesn't really help me because mooks that are actually worth fielding over actual units are rare at best and virtually nonexistent at worst.

Bosses (Haitaka, Kumagera, Nichol, Gazak, etc), enemy healers, unique skill combo dudes, THE ONE AND ONLY

Spoiler

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Story wise, it doesn't make sense to unquestionably trust a captured enemy soldier to fight for your cause without any thought to the fact that they may have ulterior motives and/or may have just been telling you what you wanted to hear just so they can get a chance to betray you or even run away. And then you have most of the paralogue bosses. Considering most of them are criminals of some sort, how many of THEM would you trust to fight for your cause???

Sir, this is a video game.

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I only used Ophelia and Nina as examples because their paralogues have rewards besides them. Anyways... off the top of your head, what skills would you consider good for inheritance?

Not off the top of my head but:

Nobility, Draconic Hex, Elbow Room, Stat Skills if there´s nothing better, Rallies, Wary Fighter, Strong Riposte, Sol, Locktouch, Lucky 7, Heart Seeker, Malefic Aura, Gentilhomme, Demoiselle, Live to Serve, Duelist Blow, Vantage, Death Blow, Darting Blow, Air Superiority, Quick Draw, Certain Blow, Poison Strike,  Aptitude.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 33: Chapter 24, Part 2

Okay. I've been giving this some thought over the weekend. In fact, part of this opening (including this sentence) is being written down here over the weekend as I work out my plans, just to make sure I don't forget what I come up with.

I know I don't usually do this, but I also usually don't leave a chapter on a cliffhanger in the middle of a terrifying moment that could spell game over for my entire army. I'm gonna need to make it crystal clear what's going on in order for my escape from this scenario to be remotely satisfying. So... I'm providing pictures.

As you can see, my army is cramped and completely surrounded, or rather it swiftly will become so once the dragon vein activates next turn. I have exactly one turn remaining before the dragon vein is activated and all of these fliers get a ridiculously high amount of movement with which to overwhelm me. And the only option I have for slowing those fliers down again will possibly come at the cost of half of Dakota's max HP.

Thankfully, upon further study... it's not quite as dire as it looks.

For one thing: of the ones to the west, only one of them has a bolt naginata. I thought it was more of them, but no, just one, and she's in easy range of both of my fliers who can fight worth a damn. And after that, the remaining silver naginata fliers can't actually do much damage to either Camilla or Percy, and they'd be swiftly slaughtered in retaliation if they tried. If I went for those ones directly west of me with Percy and Camilla and had two of my squishy units team up with them so that they aren't sitting ducks later (using Laslow as an intermediary for Percy so he can pass it off to him right before rallying where he stands), then they'd be in an excellent position to take out all but one of the remaining falcon knights on this side between this player phase and proceeding enemy phase. If I then proceed to have my remaining most vulnerable units pair up with the Laslows for a speedy getaway, and then have Dakota finish off that hexed and wounded falcon knight from where she stands...

...I could get everyone truly vulnerable safely under the wing of a flier, leaving only Xander, Leo, and Effie (paired up with Siegbert) in range of the incoming kinshi knights that Dakota won't be able to move to distract. Assuming there's no second wave of reinforcements immediately after this, that should get everyone safely out of here alive.

...Alright.

Let's try it out.

The most crucial part of this is Dakota killing this weakened falcon knight with two hits of a levin sword. Elfire, my forged fire tome, would be more accurate, but then I'd have to deal with an 8-ish percent chance of missing and a 20% chance of aegis proccing, rather than just a 20% chance of missing. I have to take this. My options for this turn heavily depend on whether or not this hits.

It does. Both hits connect, and thus she goes down.

Transferring Mozu from Laslow to Percy and then rallying works. I basically knew it would, but there's this part of my brain I hate that made me worry I was misremembering how transfer works. The same part of my brain that drives me to quadruple-check that the two cats in my house that hate each other are locked in separate rooms before I leave.

I gave Ophelia to Camilla for some res (she'll be fighting the bolt naginata one) and just for the sake of having a pair-up partner to help her survive the numerous attacks she'll be attracting.

Aaaaaaand here come reinforcements from the south.

Thankfully, as I said, everyone I have here is either with a flier, or can take several hits. I'm having Leo (with the horse spirit) and Siegbert/Effie (with the javelin) move to only be in range of the bunch of leftovers Dakota heavily wounded and hexed (and the kinshi knights) while Percy baits in the falcon knights that just came from the south and Xander baits in the kinshi knights by getting closer to them.

...Except he can't because his defense is too high after WTA. GOD DAMN IT.

Guess he'll stick with Leo/Felicia and Siegbert/Effie then.

...And then the bolt naginata reinforcement... who I didn't realize was in range of Siegbert due to the weird range highlighting I had to do... doubles and kills him.

Leaving Effie vulnerable at the start of the fucking round.

Thank goodness she's only vulnerable from a few angles thanks to being sandwiched between Leo and Xander with a tree at her back. She lives, and managed to take out a whopping two kinshi knights in the process despite them having bowbreaker, massively simplifying things.

There are 8 enemies, most of them heavily wounded. If I can take out all 8 with all 8 of my available units, I'm safe.

First off, the two kinshi knights floating over the southwestern lake, two of the most important enemies since they have full health and can only be attacked by fliers. Camilla takes one out, then the unpaired Laslow replica uses her dual strike and the damage from savage blow to finish off the other one. That frees up Percy to fly all the way over and take out the healthy kinshi knight on the water by Laslow/Felicia, Effie and Xander/Charlotte, as only he or Camilla could have done that. There's another one on the opposite side of the river, in the central land bridge between the two islands near the start, but since that's where Dakota is, she can take that kinshi knight out with ease.

That leaves four fairly-wounded and nerfed falcon knights left, and Leo/Felicia, Effie, Xander/Charlotte, and Laslow/Dwyer to kill them with. Xander takes out the one with the bolt naginata because it's the only one he has a reliable hit rate on. Leo uses calamity gate to take out the healthiest one, simultaneously killing that and opening up a spot where Laslow can drop Dwyer off on Effie so he can get Effie's dual strike to more reliably kill one of the two falcon knights at a diagonal from Effie. Effie, obviously, takes out the other.

Man, Leo's gonna be so much handier as an enemy-phase tank now that he has lifetaker to heal up between enemy phases.

...We're safe. We lost Siegbert, but we're safe. Unless more reinforcements show up right now, we'll have some breathing room to take out Azama.

Instead of waiting for the dragon vein to activate again, I'm opting to put Gunter right at the edge of Azama's staff range so Dakota can hop back on him and fly straight in to attack Azama even if the dragon vein doesn't activate next turn like I'm pretty sure it will. And when it does, I'll be ready to activate my own dragon vein and neutralize whatever reinforcements they're bringing in.

Azama unfortunately procs miracle, but I'm prepared for this. Dakota's thoroughly rallied up, and even if Azama decides he'd rather not attack Dakota, there's more tempting hexing rod bait for him to pick with Charlotte.

But yes, he does go for attacking Dakota for one damage instead of using his hexing rod anyway, because apparently that's how the AI works. Status staff users will always attack someone in their attack range if they have the opportunity, even if using their staff would be more advantageous.

Some reinforcements have arrived, but at this point it's too late. We've breached the tree wall. Azama is down. Hinoka will soon follow.

Yep, she's down. And I managed to have some fun with crescent bow dual strikes at the end, doing consequence-free reckless player-phasing on the last turn before seizing.

And then we get another cutscene that tries to paint Dakota as some grand hero, and some... creepy Camilla yandere yuri fanservice... that also... involves... Camilla... sister-cucking Hinoka...?

Hinoka begs Dakota not to kill Ryoma, saying if he died, she doesn't think she could survive it, and that it would tear the heart out of the kingdom.

Well, spoilers... he does die. And, uh... let's just say she does survive it.

More on that later.

Also, Dakota insists on taking Hinoka's weapon so she has something to show Garon, but uh... wouldn't some part of her clothing work better? Her armor, perhaps, or a torn piece of her shirt? Something that wouldn't leave her unarmed, like Dakota said she regretted doing? How exactly does she expect Hinoka's non-legendary weapon to be the most recognizable proof Dakota defeated her?

Fuck this, let's just finish up for the day.

I got a couple of non-gameplay-important supports. First, Percy and Mozu.

Apparently Percy was running full tilt down a mountain, tripped, and only got a scrape on his knee for his troubles. The game seems to be indicating that his insane luck has left him incredibly overconfident and reckless in his heroism, and Mozu wisely tries to talk some sense into him.

...Hilariously, this support between Xander and Effie involves Effie being worried she's plateaued in her physical potential, and Xander recommending she seek fitness advice... from Arthur. I get he means that having a new perspective on how to exercise might help her make a breakthrough, and not necessarily that Arthur's all-around better at exercising than she is, but in light of what half of Arthur and Effie's support chain was about... namely him trying to learn from her on order to get stronger... this feels weird. Like, it would've been a far more interesting thing to bring up in Effie's support with Arthur.

As for Leo and Effie, alright. Pre-reading guess: brains vs. brawn is gonna come up.

...Not in quite the cliche'd way I imagined. Leo basically asks a passing Effie what strategy she'd think to use for a situation he's currently brainstorming for, and she basically tells him to send her to the front to hold off the main force while everyone else attacks from the rear. Amusingly it's not nearly as terrible of a strategy as Leo makes it sound. I mean, not with her, certainly not when she's an archer, but with someone like Xander or Dakota it could totally be viable depending on the situation.

I got a berserker's axe, which I gave to Percy to make sure he can hit certain thresholds. It's basically this game's version of the devil axe, replacing the chance of backfiring with 30% post-battle HP damage. It's absurdly strong and accurate though, so there will no doubt be situations where it's well worth it.

Ah yes, as for the falcon knight Niles died to capture, Beruka's persuading her now. Her name's Nanoha. And I can actually recruit her right now in exchange for a bunch of milk (easy) and a little more than all the cabbage I have. I'll wait until I actually want to use her though.

I think I'll be taking on Soleil's paralogue next, because next chapter is where I really want Soleil around. Also, I've got some slots in my army I need to fill up.

Oh hey! Only 9 battles away from hitting that 1000 battle point benchmark for the bonus “battling my readers” episode at the end of the playlog! And I'm at 9661 visitor points too! I may actually get the visitation seal by the end of the game! That would be awesome!

But yeah. Yeah, now we're really getting down to the wire. But I'm still feeling pretty confident. As long as we can get the treasure in Chapter 25 (which Soleil should help immensely with), I think I stand a good chance of winning.

Well, as far as this ironman can still be “won”. I hate that I had to house-rule the poll of death thing, because it makes the concept of “losing” an ironman much more iffy.

...So fuck it.

No more polls of death.

If Dakota dies from here on out, I bow out and admit the ironman is completely dead.

See you tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

Stay safer than Niles and Siegbert.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Venger_06]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm providing pictures.

Is your New 3DS the Fates edition? Are the two screens IPS?

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Maof06 said:

Is your New 3DS the Fates edition? Are the two screens IPS?

Fates edition, yes! Found it for sale for relatively cheap and bought it when I needed a replacement a few years ago! As for IPS, I don't know what you mean by that.

[Venger_06]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Fates edition, yes! Found it for sale for relatively cheap and bought it when I needed a replacement a few years ago!

Good shit. I never found this version at a good price. FE is simply not popular where I live.

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

As for IPS, I don't know what you mean by that.

Screen display type. IPS screens have better quality overall than TN ones.

 

[Shadow Mir]

19 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Sir, this is a video game.

So what? So is Three Houses, and yet after the Great Bridge battle, Dimitri allows some random woman aboard his cause after she requests to join his army (something that anybody with a good head on their shoulders would call out or at the very least be suspicious of, and not without good reason, given that she could possibly be an Imperial spy or worse). Which, while it isn't the same, I still consider ten billion percent more realistic than Fates implying that a captured enemy soldier would be unfailingly loyal to your cause and not have any ulterior motives whatsoever. Hell, something similar happens in Revelation, except Corrin, despite initially trusting Anthony, was suspicious enough to plan ahead in case the worst came to pass.

19 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Bosses (Haitaka, Kumagera, Nichol, Gazak, etc), enemy healers, unique skill combo dudes, THE ONE AND ONLY

At least two of the bosses you mentioned are in bad classes. Second, I generally find enemy healers hard to justify capturing and using in a game where I get two to start (unless you speak from the "play as a female Corrin and reclass Jakob to Paladin" perspective - one that I don't embrace because idgaf about any of the male characters in this game other than their performance as units). Also, that doesn't disprove my point about units that are worth capturing being extremely rare - of course, if Niles can't deliver statistically, it's all meaningless. This is ignoring that I consider their inability to support to be a pretty big downside that they're not good enough for me to ignore. And are you seriously trying to imply that I'd be willing to suffer through using Niles until chapter 23 on Lunatic (the last one you mentioned will only have two rallies on Hard) when his usefulness can't last on fucking Hard??? Wow.

19 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Not off the top of my head but:

Nobility, Draconic Hex, Elbow Room, Stat Skills if there´s nothing better, Rallies, Wary Fighter, Strong Riposte, Sol, Locktouch, Lucky 7, Heart Seeker, Malefic Aura, Gentilhomme, Demoiselle, Live to Serve, Duelist Blow, Vantage, Death Blow, Darting Blow, Air Superiority, Quick Draw, Certain Blow, Poison Strike,  Aptitude.

Okay then. I disagree on Sol and Malefic Aura, though.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Okay then. I disagree on Sol and Malefic Aura, though.

Yeah, Sol requires big brain someone with 1-2 range, but I knew your stance on that skill anyway. Malefic Aura is in essence +2 Mag.

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

story rant snip

I´m not going to let story reasons inhibit my fun. If you do, more power to you.

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

At least two of the bosses you mentioned are in bad classes.

I assume you talking about Kumagera and Gazak? Not really - of course using them requires the player to notice that they are geared towards taking stuff out and not stand around and twiddle their thumbs. There´s a goddamn reason characters have Certain Blow.

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Also, that doesn't disprove my point about units that are worth capturing being extremely rare - of course, if Niles can't deliver statistically, it's all meaningless. This is ignoring that I consider their inability to support to be a pretty big downside that they're not good enough for me to ignore. And are you seriously trying to imply that I'd be willing to suffer through using Niles until chapter 23 on Lunatic (the last one you mentioned will only have two rallies on Hard) when his usefulness can't last on fucking Hard??? Wow.

Bla bla bla, what are Fates mechanics, what is damage stacking etc pp.

And there is no stat difference between Hard and Lunatic - Niles performance will be the same on either. If you played the game, you might know that. How to keep Niles relevant - see sentence above. Or you just do, whatever you do to keep Kaze relevant.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Really, all your problems could be solved by trying stuff out,but you have been quite dedicated to trolling for the last 3-5 years.

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I got a berserker's axe, which I gave to Percy to make sure he can hit certain thresholds. It's basically this game's version of the devil axe, replacing the chance of backfiring with 30% post-battle HP damage. It's absurdly strong and accurate though, so there will no doubt be situations where it's well worth it.

The best axe in the game. I got two of those before chapter 17 once and oh yeah is it nice to just, casually and effortlessly 1hko stuff.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Imuabicus

[Jotari]

That was the first map you actually fielded Seigbert in, right? Xander, father of the year, abandons his son with visits as frequent as a deadbeat dad, praises his son for battling a hoard of enemies by himself because that's what royalty does, allows him to join a war during it's most dangerous final phase and then gets him killed in his first battle. What a hero XD

[Etrurian emperor]

Poor Siegbert. He's too good a boy to go out like that. 

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Poor Siegbert. He's too good a boy to go out like that. 

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

That was the first map you actually fielded Seigbert in, right? Xander, father of the year, abandons his son with visits as frequent as a deadbeat dad, praises his son for battling a hoard of enemies by himself because that's what royalty does, allows him to join a war during it's most dangerous final phase and then gets him killed in his first battle. What a hero XD

If it's any consolation, his death likely saved someone's life. If that bolt naginata falcon knight had gone after Percy like I originally planned, having her AND the two kinshi knights over the southwestern lake would have caused a ton of unforeseen problems. Xander would have 20% less hit against all his other targets in range, Percy and Camilla would have had to help fight the southwestern lake enemies and nobody would've been able to kill that second kinshi Knight near Dakota, and also Laslow wouldn't have been able to pass Dwyer off to Effie to get a reliable kill and might have missed as a result.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 34: Paralogue 21

So, I've been playing Into the Breach lately. I bought it a while back and remember being swiftly overwhelmed by the gameplay, but... but I guess it just clicked with me this time, because I'm doing way better and having a great time. I really like the system where all enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed and the challenge is in figuring out how to redirect the attacks away from your mechs and the cities you're protecting.

Now, where were we...?

Oh yes. Paralogue 21. Soleil's.

Oh how I love this chapter. It's a defense chapter in all but name. It feels a lot like Chapter 10, but you can do it near the end of the game with a full and badass army.

...Well, for a certain definition of “full”.

Anyway, it's Charlotte's birthday, and while as a pair-up bot the stat surge and weapon exp stuff isn't that great, I'll still be getting a free item for the team, so let's do that.

Odin's Grimoire. Shame, that's not so great.

Ah yes, I got a support with Nyx yesterday while visiting the castle. Let's check it out.

...Very short. Apparently it's still not common knowledge that Nyx is older than she looks, since Dakota doesn't know. But I mean, the heroes clearly have no qualms whatsoever about sending children like Percy into battle, so I guess nobody questioned it?

But yeah, let's check out the paralogue.

...And meet Soleil.

My second least favorite playable character in the entire game.

She's damned lucky she's so much fun.

Anyway, yeah, so Soleil apparently works with a town watch driving off bandits. On a long-term basis.

Outside of her deeprealm, which she ditched some time back to come here.

Which means that even with the spacetime shenanigans of the deeprealms, this paralogue still demands that a significant amount of time has passed since Laslow got his S rank.

I mean he did, but if I had done it earlier? Noooooo such excuse.

Also, I can't help but notice that the band of do-gooders she's put together are all men. Now you might say that that's because they didn't want to make a female lancer model, or make the generics you're supposed to save strategists or maids. Or you may say this was a cheap way to make the fact that she's just as girl-crazy as her father into a twist. But no. I'll bet you anything she tried to make an all-female town watch in some other place and they all kicked her out for numerous counts of sexual harassment.

More on that later.

Yeah, this map requires us to defend the town from multiple different locations. There are 6 openings into the walled city, 8 if you count the two we're coming from (which reinforcements might), and there are 4 lancers with wary fighter we want to protect. They won't stand a chance if exposed to enemies for too long, but thankfully they won't move.

We have a pretty cool advantage in that there are two pieces of rubble we can pocket and relocate to block off certain passageways. Like the Revelation Cyrkensia map. Except there's a damned point to the rubble this time.

I just reclassed Xander back to paladin now that he has sol. That +4 resistance is greatly appreciated.

Alright. I've decided that today, I'm doing speed and resistance for my meal.

I got defense as the third stat anyway. I'll have to place Xander in places where that won't be a problem.

...I just noticed the allied lancer portraits here are red. Not green, like they'd be in Awakening, or blue, like they were in that CG. Weird.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we get rewards for keeping all of these guys alive, and given our current financial situation... yeah, I'm gonna do everything I can to protect these lancers.

I thankfully do have enough money to buy a heart seal so that Soleil can reclass to master ninja once she gets shurikenbreaker from bow knight.

Alright, so, since this is a Nohrian paralogue, speed benchmarks are pretty low. In fact, with a Felicia pair-up, Leo can reach them with just 2 more speed after the meal. So I gave him my speedwings, because lifetaker's gonna be really useful if I can get him to the point where he's more independent. Also, this map spreads my forces so thin that even two places at once isn't enough for Laslow.

Soleil has a really nice personal skill which basically lets her enjoy Felicia's personal skill's effects... from any female character she pairs up with.

...Damn it with these paralogues and their low deployment limits. I'm trying to make space for Gunter, but everyone I'm already bringing is in pretty significant need of the training here. I wound up deciding to drop Dwyer for this map, and let Laslow get some staff training. Letting him use physic would be nice, and Dwyer already has enough that with a reclass and an arms scroll, he'll be ready to use Bifröst, which will be greatly appreciated. And I need Gunter for Dakota, with his flying utility especially. Securing the furthest parts of the map are going to be a hellish race against time.

...Yeah, no way I'm finishing this today. But I'll at least get started.

Let's go.

Okay, so, the spaces on the east side are used to air-drop my player-phase attackers into the center of town as quickly as possible, as well as get help over to Soleil, who starts out green but with just barely enough time to spare that we can get a flier over to her.

...Okay, we got her. But the enemies are really swarming in a lot of places. The southwest corner is going to take a lot of player-phasing to clear. But thankfully, by plugging up a gap with Leo, I think I can manage it.

I replicated Soleil on her first turn instead of promoting her, so that she had more actions available sooner. The replica will use the offspring seal to make them both a bow knight, and the real one will attack.

...Okay, getting in position was scary, but I think I have the place covered now. Every area either has a heavy enemy-phase tank or a bunch of player-phase attackers guarding it.

...Shit, looks like I'll have to stop here. Sorry, like I said, busy day.

Sorry for the opposite of a cliffhanger, guys.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 35: Paralogue 21, Part 2

Hey, sorry about this, but with this week being particularly busy, I think I'm gonna have to take a long weekend after finishing this part to take a moment to breathe a bit. Keep this feeling fun and less like an obligation. Next week will probably be less strict on my time. Probably.

Moving on...

Holy shit is using the crescent bow fun. I am so glad I won this thing. I don't really even have to suffer the drawback! Mozu barely ever needs that doubled damage output to kill things, certainly not now that she has bowfaire. The real utility is in the insanely strong dual strikes she can unleash with it, without ever halving her strength.

One of these days I really wanna make a malig knight Leo. It seems really fun. Not just for letting him fly while using Brynhildr, but also getting savage blow almost immediately and then getting to use it to activate his personal skill by leaping into a horde of enemies.

...Yep, just as I thought, eventually enemies showed up from the place I came from.

…Damn it, I nearly got Effie killed with a player-phase gambit because I just barely noticed the reinforcements behind the group I was attacking in time to adjust in a less-than-ideal way. Now Mozu has to eat an attack from a sorcerer (she'll live) and then I have to work out how to kill three enemies with two and a half units (Laslow being the half). I'll try to get some of my loose player-phasers from elsewhere to congregate over in time.

I had Camilla use one of the pieces of rubble on the north-northeast entrance to the town so that Xander can handle two sections at once. I only hope those mages won't be a problem.

Wound up having to swap battlefields between Xander and my player-phasers, because Xander just can't handle three sorcerers at once, and my player-phasers couldn't handle the bow knights that just mobilized from the southeast, because yeah, those enemies are moving now.

Thankfully Dakota took out the dark knights to the northwest (she managed to take that entire sector just barely between Laslow healing and two concoctions), so now she can fly down to help Leo with the boss. After that, I think we'll be home free. Only danger is if the pass bow knight lands a crit on that soldier.

Nope! I miscalculated in the enemy's favor! He's got 33 HP and the killer bow only does 7 damage! A crit wouldn't have killed! Not even with a killer bow's quad damage! And he didn't even crit!

...but then right when I look away to type that, I hear a crit flash, and... the soldier's down? WHAT?

By what I heard and saw, it sounds like the bow knight just... fucking ignored wary fighter and attacked twice, hitting the first time and critting the second!

THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED WHILE I LOOKED AWAY!? THERE WAS ONLY ONE ENEMY WITH PASS! THERE'S ONLY ONE BOW KNIGHT AROUND WHERE HE WAS! THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE!

...I really hope I still get something nice...

...On the bright side, Leo takes out the boss himself, awesomely, on enemy phase. Had to be enemy phase, because he has countermagic.

So we've won.

Right, so, Soleil asks cute bandana girl out on a date, and she accepts instantly, and Soleil goes to father and says “See, I always told you – be honest with women. It's not a game.”

I hate this moment. It would be annoying and preachy enough to begin with if it were actually done “correctly” (not to mention that this implies Laslow's still flirting with women when really, being married should make the contrast in their ability to get dates irrelevant), but the fact that they had Soleil say this and then still had her do the shit she does in her support with Ophelia (not to mention the stuff she does to poor Forrest in the Japanese version) makes her come across as a complete and total fucking hypocrite, because Soleil is worse than her father has ever even demonstrated the capacity to be.

...I got a physic and a friendship seal. Well, I can find a use for both of those things (friendship seal will let Effie become a kinshi knight once she gets bowfaire), so that's nice. But I can't help but feel I missed out on something good.

Right, let's finish up.

So, I got a support with Dakota and Effie, but I do not have the mental energy to deal with Soleil's supports right now, so I'm gonna save those for Monday and just go straight onto Leo and Felicia after this.

Ah yes, so this is where Effie explains how she and Elise became friends. It was basically a... platonic version of how Aladdin and Jasmine met, with Elise sneaking out of the castle to hang out with the commoners, and having to reveal who she is to get some guards to stop harassing them. But instead of Effie getting put in prison and sentenced to death regardless (she was just a peasant, not a thief), she instead trained to enlist in the royal guard and-

...Oh. No, they only get to Elise's “by order of the princess!” moment before Dakota says the story has to stop because all of her exaggerated grunts while repairing a wall by shoving boulders into it are getting distracting.

I can just see the big meeting and the writing on the whiteboard saying “Brainstorming Session – Today's Topic: Excuses for Padding”. There are way, way too many supports like this, that aren't a set of organic conversations, but one conversation artificially split into a set of parts. It's infuriating as all hell, and really makes me appreciate the support writing of the rest of the series.

As for Leo and Felicia...

...This one annoys me a little.

So, there's this line, where Felicia, in reaction to Leo's declaration of love for her, objects that she's wholly unworthy of him because he's royalty and also that she'd “break all the plates and mess up [his] laundry”.

Leo says in response “I don't wish to hire you as a servant, Felicia. That would be ill-advised. But last I checked, love has nothing to do with menial housework.”

Now, at first glance, that sounds progressive of him... except it feels like he's completely missed the point of their entire support. Going by everything we know about Felicia, and everything she's said about herself, she would love being a traditional housewife. She likes taking care of people. She likes doing housework. Her most heartfelt desire is to do that and do it well. Leo seems to be implying somebody else will be taking care of the housework in this relationship, and whether he means a servant or himself, it doesn't matter. He should know full well that such an arrangement would eat away at her like nothing else.

Leo should've instead made it clear that he knows how much doing that means to her, and that he'll do anything he can to see the day where she does it with pride and a smile on her face, because he knows she has it in her. Instead, what was assumedly supposed to read as a rejection of traditional gender roles... instead reads as Leo basically inadvertently coming across like he doesn't really respect or understand her at all.

...Alright, that's it for today, and for this week. Hopefully when I see you on Monday I'll be feeling more refreshed.

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited May 15, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

24 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I got a physic and a friendship seal. Well, I can find a use for both of those things (friendship seal will let Effie become a kinshi knight once she gets bowfaire), so that's nice. But I can't help but feel I missed out on something good.

Looking at the FE Wiki, keeping all four Lancers alive provides a Dracoshield. Not the best stat booster IMO, since it requires a good Def stat in the first place, but not as lacking as say a Secret Book or Talisman.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Looking at the FE Wiki, keeping all four Lancers alive provides a Dracoshield. Not the best stat booster IMO, since it requires a good Def stat in the first place, but not as lacking as say a Secret Book or Talisman.

Damn, that would've been nice for Soleil. Selena didn't make her nearly as tanky was I was led to believe.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Damn, that would've been nice for Soleil. Selena didn't make her nearly as tanky was I was led to believe.

To be fair, how much can Selena really do? Or any parent for any child?

A mother affect what, 1/3rd of child bases before adding in the recruitment-timing-based auto-levels? And for growths, you're talking (Soleil's 35 Def + Selena's 45)/2 = 40. If you had given her Azura, it'd be (35 + 15)/2 = 25. A 15% difference isn't nothing, but over twenty levels, you're talking a whole 3 Def on average. You also have the child's class at play in both growths and bases, which can be largely independent of the selectable parent.

I'm not going to say "the choice of variable parent never matters" from a practical stat perspective, because they can. Yet, I don't think most children in any of the three breeding FEs are heavily impacted by their choice of second parent from anything less than a pure optimization perspective.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

34 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

To be fair, how much can Selena really do? Or any parent for any child?

A mother affect what, 1/3rd of child bases before adding in the recruitment-timing-based auto-levels? And for growths, you're talking (Soleil's 35 Def + Selena's 45)/2 = 40. If you had given her Azura, it'd be (35 + 15)/2 = 25. A 15% difference isn't nothing, but over twenty levels, you're talking a whole 3 Def on average. You also have the child's class at play in both growths and bases, which can be largely independent of the selectable parent.

I'm not going to say "the choice of variable parent never matters" from a practical stat perspective, because they can. Yet, I don't think most children in any of the three breeding FEs are heavily impacted by their choice of second parent from anything less than a pure optimization perspective.

Fair enough. And she still has shurikenbreaker. I just hope that's enough for what I need her to do.

[Alastor15243]

I'm back, but expect a short update today. Almost forgot today was my vaccine appointment day!

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 36: Chapter 25

Alright, I'm back! Now then...

...Ugh.

Soleil's supports.

Okay, so Soleil brags about having tea with five girls, and as I said, this really shouldn't bother Laslow anymore now that he's married and presumably not flirting with girls anymore. But yeah, uh...

...Part of me wishes I could get the supports that demonstrate what a terrible character Soleil is, but alas.

Yeah, uh, so...

...One of the loudest complaints I've heard about the localization is that Soleil wasn't actually outright sexually attracted to women in the Japanese version, and the localization turned her into a lesbian (even getting rid of nearly all of the romance from her straight S-support options because apparently bisexual people don't exist) and misrepresented a big part of her character.

...Reading this support between Soleil and her mother Selena... I can see that being true. This really looks to me like the one remaining vestige of Japanese Soleil's apparent original fascination with female cuteness, when she goes... kinda nuts over her own mother doing something as mundane as sharpening swords. In the context of how blatantly gay the rest of the localization made her... that makes this interaction kinda... incestuous.

...Right, let's check out Chapter 25 and see if we're... quite ready for it yet. We have three paralogues left. We've gotten all the ones we're going to get. We have one for each remaining chapter, which is good.

Azura: There's a secret space in front of the throne room. You must pass by it to get to the throne.

THEN IT'S NOT MUCH OF A FUCKING SECRET, IS IT, AZURA!?

And if it were really secret and hard to find, that would logically mean that the throne room itself is hidden, no? If so, surely they could've taken advantage of this to sneak in while everyone splits up to find a way into the throne room, allowing them to talk to Ryoma without being overheard, which is what's concerning them right now.

This is so outrageously dumb that I have to assume the word “secret” is a mistranslation from the original Japanese.

...Just out of curiosity, I looked up a playthrough of the fan translation of Conquest, and... yes, looks like it. Instead of being called a “secret space”, it's called a “reception hall”. Which makes so much more fucking sense.

Ah yeah, the crazy shit Ryoma does with the torches. I remember people speculating this meant that Castle Shirasagi would burn down, but no, Ryoma's just being hilariously irresponsible with fire.

Anyway yeah, Dakota's forced to keep up the lie to Ryoma that she killed Hinoka, and then he charges at her. And then when it cuts back to the map... some magical trap was activated I guess, sealing Dakota and Ryoma off from everyone else? They never show how everyone else is pushed out of that room. The script doesn't even acknowledge that that happens!

In fact, they act like it's the Nohrian army, under Iago and Garon's orders, that allows this duel to remain a duel, just to make Dakota suffer more.

...But it seems like what's stopping Xander is less those orders and more the interference of the Hoshidan royal guard. So the trap is a thing, they just... don't fucking acknowledge it at all when it happens.

...Okay, so... time to prepare a bit.

Because this map is completely psycho.

In contrast to Hard mode, on Lunatic this map has master ninja fucking everywhere, which is a problem because for the rest of the game, enemies who can debuff stats are given inevitable end as a skill. Which causes debuffs to stack. Honestly, with only a few exceptions, I could've handled that being the case since the very beginning of the game. But here... combining it with the sheer number of ninja is gonna make this super tricky.

I just forged the two quill pens I fortunately have in my convoy into a +1 called Pen Island (which is apparently wifi acceptable, so at least that variation of the Scunthorpe Problem isn't a thing), which means that I have a passable dagger weapon for Soleil that gives +10 avoid. This gives Soleil a base avoid against shuriken of 121, versus their hit of 147. And that's before rallies and tonics and the like. I can't let it get too low or they'll just stop getting baited in entirely, but that should be enough to enemy-phase a good deal of these master ninja. On both sides, mind, since she has replicate. Though probably not on the same turn.

I really want to figure out a way to get to those chests, because I'm really in need of the money, and that silence staff will be vitally important.

...Yeeeaaaaah, I think this might not be the best time to do this map. I think I want to get Forrest first. He'll have a skill that'll be really important.

 

Day 36 Change of Plans: Paralogue 16

Alright, let's try Forrest's paralogue. Now, in contrast to turning Soleil into a lesbian, they didn't leap at the opportunity to turn Forrest from a crossdresser into a trans woman, which I appreciate, because honestly that would've been some profound irony, tossing a character's gender identity out of the window based on the stereotypes they fall under, all in the name of “respecting gender identity”. I'm similarly annoyed when a certain segment of the Danganronpa fandom does that with a certain character, especially since making that character trans instead of a crossdresser basically... completely destroys their character arc.

Leo, uh... does not approve of Forrest's fashion sense.

Elise is pretty damned hilarious here. I mean, granted, “Embrace our lovely Forrest!” is kinda cringeworthy, but still hilarious as hell.

But yeah, Leo's an unsupportive and dickish father here, acting like he just caught his son masturbating in full view of the town rather than healing wounded villagers while dressed in girly clothes.

I reclassed Mozu into a kinshi knight now that she has bowfaire. It'll be nice to have a high-mov player-phase unit for some of the shit I'm going to have to do next chapter.

So... by marrying Leo and Felicia together, I have a Forrest that has both demoiselle and gentilhomme, which when combined with inspiration, which he'll be getting in just one level, will give him a +4 defensive aura he can give to anyone around him. There's a certain obstacle coming up in Chapter 25 that this will be vital for.

...Actually, I don't think this is the best chapter to do either. Limited deployment means I have to strike an uncomfortable balance between units I want to train and units I need to get me out of a tough situation if shit hits the fan. I think it might actually be wise to take this moment to use Kana's paralogue to train up Soleil and a few others before I tackle something potentially dangerous like a full-on Conquest paralogue. Also, Kana will be nice to have because I can give him the shelter skill and give him a flying class with a little more money.

Alright, yeah, let's do this one. Might even be able to finish it today!

 

Day 36 Change of Change of Plans: Paralogue 2

Almost immediately, Effie gets bowfaire, and Ophelia gets a mediocre level up. I don't know how many times I've read “It's something, and yet nothing” with Ophelia, and she still somehow manages to just barely be worth fielding despite also being underleveled. Hopefully I can use this opportunity to catch her up.

Soleil starts ripping into the falcon knights to the south, getting locktouch against enemy 2. I'm really hoping I can get her shurikenfaire.

...Alright, I've nearly killed all of the first wave, and Soleil is just 67 exp away from getting shurikenfaire, all according to plan. That'll make it much easier for her to hit one-rounding thresholds.

Now to wait the obnoxiously long time for the secret reinforcements to show up.

In the process of patching everyone up, Laslow got himself C rank staff access, so now he can use physics! Awesome!

Yep, Soleil just got shurikenfaire by killing the boss when he charged at the end of turn 7. The sniper was left alive though.

Ophelia finally gets a really good level up at level 13. Let's see how high a level I can get her to, now that my other main priorities have been dealt with. I'll also see if I can get Percy swordbreaker, because that'd be nice.

The nice thing is that after the first annoying wave of reinforcements, the new ones tend to show up just when it's time to kill the ones that were already here.

And we're done. Effie has bowfaire, Percy has swordbreaker, Soleil's a level 20 master ninja, Dakota's hit level 20, Ophelia's about to hit level 15 in a kill or two, and Laslow's got a C in staves. Yeah, I think this has been a productive day, even if it didn't take very long. Good thing too, because I had less time today than I expected. Might be the same tomorrow as well, depending on how bad the side-effects of the vaccine hit me.

But I've gotta finish up the supports I just got first.

I've already done the Kana ones before, so I'll skip that...

Though I'll at least read the Jakob one.

I like this one. Nothing feels particularly out of character with it-

...Did Jakob just say he makes “a killer cup of joe”?

Uh...

...moving on.

Ooh, Percy and Mozu hit A rank together!

...It's cute, but pretty predictable.

Anyway, Soleil got B with Selena, which means she gets... an extra point of defense compared to C. Definitely useful for what I have planned.

...Yep, yet again, this Soleil-Selena support feels like something they left in despite everything else they changed making it weird. Seen in a vacuum it's just kinda quirky, like you can maybe believe it isn't incestuous... but with everything else she does, it sure as shit feels like it.

...Ooh, nice! Soleil capped strength as a master ninja! And Effie's capped strength as a sniper at 35, compared to the 31 of a kinshi knight and the 33 of a bow knight. That kinda tempts me to use that partner seal I got to reclass Effie to bow knight for movement+1. A 9-mov mounted unit would be really nice to have for these last few missions. But I'll decide when I next play.

For now, I'm signing off.

Stay safe, everyone.